I've had those days where I found a spot and started picking up nuggets plenty of times. 3˝oz was my best back right after the 97 floods, picking up nuggets one after the other, with no detector needed as they were on top of bedrock, but I've had a few ounce days like that also. So it still happens for me in every flood year. It's just a matter of being the first guy in and that is where the danger's at. I'm not counting the 4oz nugget from when I was a kid. Or this 6oz.
Then I have broken my share of boulders too, sometimes by hand and others by -

Wow reed! Beautiful! Did you just hike the rivers visually looking in bedrock cracks after the water level started to drop? 10 inches of rain alone this weekend has made some certain floods in my area....

Wow reed! Beautiful! Did you just hike the rivers visually looking in bedrock cracks after the water level started to drop? 10 inches of rain alone this weekend has made some certain floods in my area....

I didn't have to look hard, a lot of areas replenish during a flood. You just need to find those areas and remember where they are because many places don't replenish at all.

Way too labor intensive. Simply blast/dredge around the boulder,jack up with a pneumatic car jack, place rocks to retain up. Dredge/blast,repeat other side and 1/100 the work. Ez to do, quicker and lots less work. Did not see anything close/big enough to winch to? John

Not everyone is fortunate enough to have the financial liberty to afford a dredge, air compressor, and pneumatic jack; or the super human strength required to hike it all down to the river by themselves. Let alone live in a state where liberals haven't made it illegal to even use a water pump. As a one man mining machine my damn self , I find this inspiring as all hell. I think alot of us here in the states get to soft granted the privelage we have of living in this great country. There's guys in Africa, Peru, the Philippines, etc. That have never seen miner's moss, or a classifier that fits onto a 5 gallon bucket. They don't have a mining shop they can go to and upgrade their jobe sluice with a high banker/dredge kit or get a new set of riffles. Straight up busting their ass trying to pull out a gram so they can feed a family and make it to work the next day themselves. I've often thought about trying to gather some donations from around the community(old pans,classifiers, old miner's moss and carpet or even scraps of it, broken riffle bars, trashed sluices, broken shovels, buckets, hell even yee old poop tube sluice or what have you) and finding a way to get it to the guys using their loin clothe for sluice matting every day and a beat-in bottom of a 50 gallon drum for a pan.

The following is from the CA Fish and Wildlife website at https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/LSA .
When is Notification of Lake or Streambed Alteration (LSA) required?
Fish and Game Code section 1602 requires an entity to notify CDFW prior to commencing any activity that may do one or more of the following:

Substantially divert or obstruct the natural flow of any river, stream or lake;
Substantially change or use any material from the bed, channel or bank of any river, stream, or lake; or
Deposit debris, waste or other materials that could pass into any river, stream or lake.
Please note that "any river, stream or lake" includes those that are episodic (they are dry for periods of time) as well as those that are perennial (they flow year round). This includes ephemeral streams, desert washes, and watercourses with a subsurface flow. It may also apply to work undertaken within the flood plain of a body of water.

....sooo....

Being as how the water has to drain somewhere....and is more than likely to contain silt....and alter the stream bed via erosion and deposition....

A permit from the water Gestapo is required. And it's expensive. And a pain in the ass.

Unless I've missed some landmark victory in the fight for our mining rights here in California, which I very well may have, in which case fill be in brother!

And would you cut the Victor crap already, Id run circles around that old koot. Might as well be sayin I play baseball like a girl.

The following is from the CA Fish and Wildlife website at https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/LSA .
When is Notification of Lake or Streambed Alteration (LSA) required?
Fish and Game Code section 1602 requires an entity to notify CDFW prior to commencing any activity that may do one or more of the following:

Substantially divert or obstruct the natural flow of any river, stream or lake;
Substantially change or use any material from the bed, channel or bank of any river, stream, or lake; or
Deposit debris, waste or other materials that could pass into any river, stream or lake.
Please note that "any river, stream or lake" includes those that are episodic (they are dry for periods of time) as well as those that are perennial (they flow year round). This includes ephemeral streams, desert washes, and watercourses with a subsurface flow. It may also apply to work undertaken within the flood plain of a body of water.

....sooo....

Being as how the water has to drain somewhere....and is more than likely to contain silt....and alter the stream bed via erosion and deposition....

A permit from the water Gestapo is required. And it's expensive. And a pain in the ass.

Unless I've missed some landmark victory in the fight for our mining rights here in California, which I very well may have, in which case fill be in brother!

And would you cut the Victor crap already, Id run circles around that old koot. Might as well be sayin I play baseball like a girl.

Are we on the same page here cuz it's starting to sound like you're just arguing for the sake of argument. Pumping water is considered diverting it and since that water's going to have to flow back down to the stream at some point it's going to alter the stream bed within the floodplain of the river that I'm working on wherever that maybe. If we are allowed to run water pumps at the river than WYD isn't everybody doing it? It's not so much running the water pump as it is what you do with the water as any type of motorized or mechanical means of processing minerals is band by the revised red band rules

Case in point? I present Fish and game code 5653
Section G: (g) For purposes of this section and Section 5653.1 , the use of vacuum or suction dredge equipment, also known as suction dredging, is the use of a mechanized or motorized system for removing or assisting in the removal of, or the processing of, material from the bed, bank, or channel of a river, stream, or lake in order to recover minerals. This section and Section 5653.1 do not apply to, prohibit, or otherwise restrict nonmotorized recreational mining activities, including panning for gold

Now as much as I'd like to ignore reality or believe I'm above the law, it seems to me like section g was worded loosely enough for a fishing games officer to be able to encompass use of a water pump as "the use of a mechanized or motorized system for removing or assisting in the removal of, or the processing of, material from the bed, bank, or channel of a river, stream, or lake in order to recover minerals."

So while there was no mention of water pumps being illegal...well let's just say if u think this doesn't encompass the use of a water pump, I'd say it's questionable if you've ever even used one for mining. I know there are lots of people working claims every day, some even with dredges. Maybe someone who's out there doin the damn thing for someone who's been busted running a water pump or better yet somebody who wasn't busted for running a water pump and has confirmed from law enforcement official that it's legal could chime in and fill me in on this whole gig because as far as I know the moment you start using that pump or water from it remaining law enforcement officers are going to flip a f****** script